Seven Wonders of the World

Seven ancient buildings or works of art, distinguished either for size or splendour, viz.: (1) the Egyptian pyramids;

(2) the hanging gardens of Semiramis at Babylon;

(3) the temple of Artemis, at Ephesus;

(4) the statue of Zeus by Phidias (q.v.), at Olympia;

(5) the Mausoleum (q.v.) at Halicarnassus;

(6) the Colossus of Rhodes (see Colossus); and

(7) the lighthouse on the island of Pharos, off Alexandria in Egypt. (See Pharos.) These wonders were thus classified and celebrated by one of the Alexandrian scholars, Philo of Byzantium, in a work entitled Περὶ τῶν Ἑπτὰ Θεαμάτων, which is edited by Orelli (Leipzig, 1816).